Flying Squirrels? Seriously?

(PR) RICHMOND, VA – Richmond Professional Baseball held a press conference on Thursday to announce that Flying Squirrels has been chosen as the team name for the Eastern League franchise beginning play at The Diamond in 2010. Flying Squirrels was selected from a pool of more than 15,000 entries submitted during an on-line “Name the Team” contest on TimesDispatch.com and subsequent wild card entry period on CNBC.com.

“We are thrilled with the passion that selecting the name of the team has ignited within the community,” said Richmond Professional Baseball Chief Executive Manager Chuck Domino. “We have promised the baseball fans of Richmond a truly unique brand of fun. Out of all the tremendous entries we received, we believe the Flying Squirrels moniker provides the best representation of that brand, while giving us unlimited avenues to creatively explore the identity of this team.”

Brad Mead, the fan who submitted Flying Squirrels in the “Name the Team” contest, was unable to attend the press conference. However, his mother, Donna Nelson, and step-father, Kyle Nelson, accepted the grand prize on his behalf. Mead was awarded two Flying Squirrels’ season tickets for life. The fans that submitted the names of the other finalists were also on hand at the press conference, and were awarded prize packs from the newly-minted team.

Other speakers at the press conference were Richmond Times-Dispatch President & Publisher Tom Silvestri and Flying Squirrels’ General Manager Bill Papierniak. Jason Klein and Casey White of Plan B. Branding also outlined the team’s plans for logo creation and brand implementation. In conjunction with the naming announcement, the team introduced the new on-line home of the team — SquirrelsBaseball.com — which will replace RichmondProBaseball.com. The team had been operating on the temporary site while the name of the team was being selected.